s, I suppose
there is no doubt that if he had not killed himself he would have been
hung."

"There is not a shadow of doubt about that," Mark replied. "We found
the proceeds of a vast number of robberies at his place, and also in
his pockets the money he had taken from the passengers of the Portsmouth
coach an hour before we captured him. So that putting aside that
Australian business altogether, his doom was sealed."

"Now, please, tell us all about it," Mrs. Cunningham said. "But first
let us congratulate you most warmly not only on the success of your
search, but that the work is at an end."

"Yes, I am glad it is over. At first I was very much interested; in
fact, I was intensely interested all along, and should have been for
however long it had continued. But, at the same time, I could do nothing
else, and one does not want to spend one's whole life as a detective.
At last it came about almost by chance, and the only thing I have to
congratulate myself upon is that my idea of the sort of place he would
have taken was exactly borne out by fact."

And Mark then gave them a full account of the manner in which the
discovery had been made and the capture effected.

"You see, Millicent, I followed your injunction, and was very careful.
Taking him by surprise as I did, I might have managed it single handed,
but with the aid of two good men it made a certainty of it, and the
whole thing was comfortably arranged."

"I think you have done splendidly, Mark," Mrs. Cunningham said. "It was
certainly wonderful that you should have found him doing exactly what
you had guessed, even down to the deaf servant. Well, now that is done
and over, what do you think of doing next?"

"I have hardly thought about that," he replied; "but, at any rate, I
shall take a few weeks' holiday, and I suppose after that I shall settle
down to the search for my uncle's treasure. I am afraid that will be
a much longer and a vastly more difficult business than this has been.
Here there were all sorts of clews to work upon. Bastow ought to have
been captured months ago, but in this other affair, so far, there is
next to nothing to follow up. We don't even know whether the things are
in India or in England. I believe they will be found, but that it will
be by an accident. Besides, I fancy that we shall hear about them when
you come of age, Millicent. There was to have been no change till that
time, and I cannot help thinking that Uncle George must